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A zombie who yearns for a better life ends up falling in love with a human, in this original debut novel. R is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he has dreams. He doesn't enjoy killing people; he enjoys riding escalators and listening to Frank Sinatra. He is a little different from his fellow Dead. Not just another zombie novel, this is funny, scary, and deeply moving.Tags
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Member Reviews
There's one word I never thought I'd use to describe a zombie novel; poetic. But Isaac Marion has somehow managed to pack this novel so full of beautiful metaphors and waxing philosophical moments that by all rights it should come out as trite, pretentious, and unreadable. But it doesn't, its beautiful, hilarious, and heart-warming. Read it.
From my Cannonball Read V Review...
I know it might be blasphemy to admit this, but here goes: I’m not really into zombies. I have no desire to watch The Walking Dead (and have muted all related hashtags on Twitter); no interest in World War Z. I did see Shawn of the Dead about two years ago and I recall laughing very loudly at Zombieland. But that’s it for me.
I say this all because the reason I ended up reading Warm Bodies is because I saw the movie. It was available on Redbox, my husband and I wanted to watch something, and we both thought we’d remembered someone saying it was cute and different from standard zombie fare. And that generic someone was correct: the movie was adorable. So adorable that we ended up watching all the show more extras, including one where they speak with the author of the book. If I’m remembering correctly, the book was actually written to fulfill an option placed on a short story Mr. Marion had written, and which a film director had picked up. That sounded kind of interesting, so I decided to read the book.
The book is a quick read – it’s not short, but the action moves at a nice clip. If you’re familiar with the film, you’ll recognize most of what’s in the book, although there are some differences. Based loosely on Romeo and Juliet, Warm Bodies follows the life (or “life”) of R., a zombie who has a very rich inner monologue. He lives in an airplane at the airport (flight has stopped long ago), goes out hunting with his fellow zombies, and even has a zombie wife. Until he runs into Julie and her friends, regular humans out on a scavenging mission from their home, an old sports stadium. Julie gets caught up with the zombies in R.'s hunting group, and R. saves her, taking her back with him to the airport and hiding her from the other zombies who just smell the life in her.
While the book certainly has some connection to the star-crossed lovers concept of Romeo and Juliet (I mean, how much more star-crossed can you get when one of you is, you know, dead), I enjoyed it more for its exploration of what being a zombie means. Why DO they eat brains? What happens when they do? Do they have any feelings? Can they be helped? What does that mean for the regular, living humans? As I said, I’ve never really cared for zombies once they are seen as this threat to the humans, but the back story? The view from their eyes? That’s pretty cool indeed. show less
I know it might be blasphemy to admit this, but here goes: I’m not really into zombies. I have no desire to watch The Walking Dead (and have muted all related hashtags on Twitter); no interest in World War Z. I did see Shawn of the Dead about two years ago and I recall laughing very loudly at Zombieland. But that’s it for me.
I say this all because the reason I ended up reading Warm Bodies is because I saw the movie. It was available on Redbox, my husband and I wanted to watch something, and we both thought we’d remembered someone saying it was cute and different from standard zombie fare. And that generic someone was correct: the movie was adorable. So adorable that we ended up watching all the show more extras, including one where they speak with the author of the book. If I’m remembering correctly, the book was actually written to fulfill an option placed on a short story Mr. Marion had written, and which a film director had picked up. That sounded kind of interesting, so I decided to read the book.
The book is a quick read – it’s not short, but the action moves at a nice clip. If you’re familiar with the film, you’ll recognize most of what’s in the book, although there are some differences. Based loosely on Romeo and Juliet, Warm Bodies follows the life (or “life”) of R., a zombie who has a very rich inner monologue. He lives in an airplane at the airport (flight has stopped long ago), goes out hunting with his fellow zombies, and even has a zombie wife. Until he runs into Julie and her friends, regular humans out on a scavenging mission from their home, an old sports stadium. Julie gets caught up with the zombies in R.'s hunting group, and R. saves her, taking her back with him to the airport and hiding her from the other zombies who just smell the life in her.
While the book certainly has some connection to the star-crossed lovers concept of Romeo and Juliet (I mean, how much more star-crossed can you get when one of you is, you know, dead), I enjoyed it more for its exploration of what being a zombie means. Why DO they eat brains? What happens when they do? Do they have any feelings? Can they be helped? What does that mean for the regular, living humans? As I said, I’ve never really cared for zombies once they are seen as this threat to the humans, but the back story? The view from their eyes? That’s pretty cool indeed. show less
R is a zombie. Well, he's pretty sure his name used to start with an R, at least. Most of his identity is gone, but he does still retain a sense of self-awareness. More than most, anyway. But he does very little with it except wonder if there's much point to all this standing around and groaning, until one day he eats the brain of a boy who loves a girl... and he begins to change.
I decided to read this now because I've seen trailers for the movie, and thought it looked like a lot of fun, but I'd heard the book was even better and figured I ought to read it first. I'm not sure, though, that "fun" is the first word that comes to mind to describe this. It is fun, I suppose; there's a lot of dark, wry humor to be found here. But it's also show more well-written and poignant and deeply metaphorical, and by the time I was just a few pages in, I was feeling completely blown away by it. Unfortunately, the second half of the book felt more uneven and less satisfying to me than the first half, but considering that the first half had me exclaiming, "Whoa, this is fantastic!", that's probably not as big a criticism as it might be.
Even though I don't share the sentimenet, I can totally understand why so many people are now heartily sick of zombies and their current pop culture over-exposure. But I think this book is proof of the fact that there's life left in the zombie idea yet. So to speak. show less
I decided to read this now because I've seen trailers for the movie, and thought it looked like a lot of fun, but I'd heard the book was even better and figured I ought to read it first. I'm not sure, though, that "fun" is the first word that comes to mind to describe this. It is fun, I suppose; there's a lot of dark, wry humor to be found here. But it's also show more well-written and poignant and deeply metaphorical, and by the time I was just a few pages in, I was feeling completely blown away by it. Unfortunately, the second half of the book felt more uneven and less satisfying to me than the first half, but considering that the first half had me exclaiming, "Whoa, this is fantastic!", that's probably not as big a criticism as it might be.
Even though I don't share the sentimenet, I can totally understand why so many people are now heartily sick of zombies and their current pop culture over-exposure. But I think this book is proof of the fact that there's life left in the zombie idea yet. So to speak. show less
Zombies aren't normally my thing, but I followed a link that showed a promo video for this book. It looked amusing and it was. Warm Bodies introduces us to our zombie hero, Rrr... He can't remember his real name, but he's pretty sure it started with an R. He lives in a Boeing 747 and he likes Sinatra. Then, one day on a hunting mission, feeling a bit peckish, he eats the brains of a young man and gains access to his victim's memories, including memories of the dead man's girlfriend. Now R wants to be a better...er...man..for Julie's sake. So now he's off the flesh and high on life! It's sort of inspired by Romeo and Juliet, but actually with fewer deaths. :) But then again, most people are already dead before the story starts! It's not show more the zombie novel you're expecting and that's a good thing. Very enjoyable. show less
There's one word I never thought I'd use to describe a zombie novel; poetic. But Isaac Marion has somehow managed to pack this novel so full of beautiful metaphors and waxing philosophical moments that by all rights it should come out as trite, pretentious, and unreadable. But it doesn't, its beautiful, hilarious, and heart-warming. Read it.
It's a romance. With zombies. Sparkling ones. I should hate it, I really should. I like my zombies grotesque and frightening, seeping with the effluence of their decay, and visceral in their nightmare-inducing nature. Maybe I'm weird, but I like that. Oh, I can explain it with socially-acceptable excuses, like that I enjoy the dystopian aspects of a zombie apocalypse, or that such books are like wilderness survival novels for a modern, more urban-centric society. It's all true, but there is something about the carnal devouring of human innards by a decomposing corpse that I find indefatigably satisfying. Perhaps I would be more concerned if the genre wasn't so popular right now.
So, why did I like Warm Bodies so much? Well, because I'm a show more sucker for a story where the 'unlikely' male gets the girl. Being a shy, nerdy, socially awkward bibliophile...well, it's always an appealing fantasy. And you really can't get any more unlikely than a stinking, rotting, bloodthirsty corpse, can you?
Despite the fact that this book strays VERY far away from the popular zombie mythos, treading deep into the murky shark-infested waters of Twilight-esquedness, I really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters, and the awkward relationship, and maybe I even liked the sappy ending a little, even if I have loudly professed my displeasure for such things in the past and will probably continue to do so in the future. I liked it, okay? I liked it I liked it I liked it. There, I said it. Even though romances tend to incite my struggles with social phobias and loneliness, this managed to overcome my emotional instability and resulted in a fun, enjoyable, and hopeful read. show less
So, why did I like Warm Bodies so much? Well, because I'm a show more sucker for a story where the 'unlikely' male gets the girl. Being a shy, nerdy, socially awkward bibliophile...well, it's always an appealing fantasy. And you really can't get any more unlikely than a stinking, rotting, bloodthirsty corpse, can you?
Despite the fact that this book strays VERY far away from the popular zombie mythos, treading deep into the murky shark-infested waters of Twilight-esquedness, I really enjoyed this book. I liked the characters, and the awkward relationship, and maybe I even liked the sappy ending a little, even if I have loudly professed my displeasure for such things in the past and will probably continue to do so in the future. I liked it, okay? I liked it I liked it I liked it. There, I said it. Even though romances tend to incite my struggles with social phobias and loneliness, this managed to overcome my emotional instability and resulted in a fun, enjoyable, and hopeful read. show less
Summary: R is learning to live with being dead. His mind still works, but his memory's shot: he doesn't remember what it was that turned him and almost everyone else on the planet into silent, shuffling zombies; he doesn't remember any details of his old life; he doesn't even remember his own name. Now the only memories he has are those that he can absorb when he eats the brain of one of the Living. But on one hunting trip, he eats the brain of a young man, the boyfriend of one of the other Living people in the group set upon by zombies. Buoyed by his memories, R feels an instant connection to Julie, and instead of eating her as well, he brings her back to his "home" at the abandoned airport. Julie is terrified - she's miles away from show more the enclosed stadium she and the meager remnants of humanity call home, and surrounded by creatures that would happily have her for dinner. But R wants nothing more than to keep her safe, partly out of guilt for eating her boyfriend, but also because her bright aliveness is such a contrast to everything else he knows... and he can sense that maybe it could change something inside him, as well.
Review: I am not a zombie person. Well, maybe I am somewhat of a zombie person on undercaffeinated Monday mornings. But in terms of preferences? No. I don't usually like (and have not seen many) zombie movies, and I don't usually gravitate towards (and have not read many) zombie books. Zombies vs. Unicorns is a notable exception to this last point, but even in that case, the stories that involved zombie romances left me a little uncomfortable. Cold dead flesh is not romantic, folks! Ew!
So in the ordinary course of things, I probably never would have seen this movie, or picked up the book. But I had a friend who encouraged me to go see it, despite the fact that I don't like zombies, describing it as "better than it had any right to be." And it was. (Once I got over the fact that the lead is the little kid from About a Boy and stopped feeling like a dirty old lady for finding him attractive.) And the same thing is true of the book itself: it is better than it has any right to be. This book is a teen postapocalyptic romance. It is Romeo and Juliet with zombies, for gods' sakes. It should be silly, it should be trite, it should be another rehashing of something that we've seen a million times. And yet, somehow, it is better than it should be. It is engaging and funny and sad and hopeful and beautiful and elegantly written and incredibly human. I got totally absorbed in this book, despite being in somewhat of a distractible reading slump, and despite the fact that I knew how it was going to end, since the book sticks pretty close to the movie.
I loved the character of R, I loved the premise of him being able to think, to observe, and to narrate via his internal monologue, but not to be able to actually share his thoughts with anyone around him. Maybe thinking zombies are more my thing than mindless zombies; who hasn't felt trapped in their own head from time to time? Julie is the type of character who had a pretty high potential to tip over into insufferable teenaged angst, but she managed to stay on the right side of the line, and the romance between her and R was touching and surprisingly sweet, considering that it started when he ate her boyfriend's brain. The writing is fluid and poignant while still being light and without getting hung up on itself, and for every deep thought about what it means to be alive, and the nature of hope in a world that seems hopeless, there's also an effective bit of humor. (On that point, I also loved M, R's zombie best friend and the main - although not only - source of comic relief.) And it's a minor thing, but the chapter headings are all old anatomical diagrams that have some relation to the action of the chapter. So clever!
So, while it may have just been a serendipitous meeting of the right book for the right mood, there is not a single thing about this novel that I would have changed. And that is why a frickin' teen zombie romance is getting the first five-star rating that I've given away in months. 5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: Beautiful and definitely worth reading. I'd recommend giving it a shot, even if you're burnt out on paranormal teen romance or if you don't normally like zombie books, or both (like me!). show less
Review: I am not a zombie person. Well, maybe I am somewhat of a zombie person on undercaffeinated Monday mornings. But in terms of preferences? No. I don't usually like (and have not seen many) zombie movies, and I don't usually gravitate towards (and have not read many) zombie books. Zombies vs. Unicorns is a notable exception to this last point, but even in that case, the stories that involved zombie romances left me a little uncomfortable. Cold dead flesh is not romantic, folks! Ew!
So in the ordinary course of things, I probably never would have seen this movie, or picked up the book. But I had a friend who encouraged me to go see it, despite the fact that I don't like zombies, describing it as "better than it had any right to be." And it was. (Once I got over the fact that the lead is the little kid from About a Boy and stopped feeling like a dirty old lady for finding him attractive.) And the same thing is true of the book itself: it is better than it has any right to be. This book is a teen postapocalyptic romance. It is Romeo and Juliet with zombies, for gods' sakes. It should be silly, it should be trite, it should be another rehashing of something that we've seen a million times. And yet, somehow, it is better than it should be. It is engaging and funny and sad and hopeful and beautiful and elegantly written and incredibly human. I got totally absorbed in this book, despite being in somewhat of a distractible reading slump, and despite the fact that I knew how it was going to end, since the book sticks pretty close to the movie.
I loved the character of R, I loved the premise of him being able to think, to observe, and to narrate via his internal monologue, but not to be able to actually share his thoughts with anyone around him. Maybe thinking zombies are more my thing than mindless zombies; who hasn't felt trapped in their own head from time to time? Julie is the type of character who had a pretty high potential to tip over into insufferable teenaged angst, but she managed to stay on the right side of the line, and the romance between her and R was touching and surprisingly sweet, considering that it started when he ate her boyfriend's brain. The writing is fluid and poignant while still being light and without getting hung up on itself, and for every deep thought about what it means to be alive, and the nature of hope in a world that seems hopeless, there's also an effective bit of humor. (On that point, I also loved M, R's zombie best friend and the main - although not only - source of comic relief.) And it's a minor thing, but the chapter headings are all old anatomical diagrams that have some relation to the action of the chapter. So clever!
So, while it may have just been a serendipitous meeting of the right book for the right mood, there is not a single thing about this novel that I would have changed. And that is why a frickin' teen zombie romance is getting the first five-star rating that I've given away in months. 5 out of 5 stars.
Recommendation: Beautiful and definitely worth reading. I'd recommend giving it a shot, even if you're burnt out on paranormal teen romance or if you don't normally like zombie books, or both (like me!). show less
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Author Information
24+ Works 3,721 Members
Some Editions
Series
Work Relationships
Has the adaptation
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Warm Bodies
- Original title
- Warm Bodies
- Original publication date
- 2010-10-01
- People/Characters
- R; Julie Cabernet; Perry Kelvin; Nora Greene; M
- Related movies
- Warm Bodies (2013 | IMDb)
- Epigraph
- You have known, O Gilgamesh,
What interests me,
To drink from the Well of Immortality.
Which means to make the dead
Rise from their graves
And the prisoners from their cells
The sinners from their sins.
I... (show all) think love's kiss kills our heart of flesh.
It is the only way to eternal life,
Which should be unbearable if lived
Among the dying flowers
And the shrieking farewells
Of the outstretched arms of our spoiled hopes.
- Herbert Mason
Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative
'...'
- The Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet II, lines 147, 153, 154, 278, 279 - Dedication
- For the foster-kids I've met.
- First words
- I'm dead, but it's not so bad.
- Quotations
- My friend 'M' says the irony of being a zombie is that everything is funny, but you can't smile, because your lips have rotted off.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)Because we want it.
- Blurbers
- Meyer, Stephenie; Pegg, Simon; Niffenegger, Audrey; Harkaway, Nick
- Original language
- English
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- Reviews
- 267
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- (3.84)
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- 13 — Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, English, Estonian, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 39
- ASINs
- 13